I've just download umbraco 7, been watching the videos. Seems great. I have my first website setup and a few templates working.
But before I go further, there are a few things i'm not sure about from a best practice point of view...
1. I manage multiple websites - so should i have one umbraco install or many? Previously i've had one cloud server with all the sites on it. If I go for many, is there a big performance hit on the server? Would most people tend up keep umbraco up to date or are they happy to have older versions running. Keeping many installs up-to-date might become a pain!
2. I understand the datatypes etc ok, but lots of my websites have small apps within them. For example, one of them adds new email signups into mailchimp, another has the ability for fans to upload comments to a fanwall etc. I can write the code in vb.net, but where would the code live? Previously it would have been in code behind files, but i'm not sure as the best way to go.
Happy to hear that you have gotten a good first impression -I think you're going to have a lot of fun :)
Question 1
In regards to your first question I will say that it depends on your scenarios. Is it client based websites or is it your own pet projects? If it's your own pet project I'd say you can easily just use the same instance. Also if it's the same client who has more than 1 website then I don't see any issues with running multiple sites on the same Umbraco installation. And especially if the client has a website, which should be in multiple languages then it's also ideal to keep each site in the same instance.
However if you're thinking about using the same Umbraco instance for different clients I'd say that it's a no go since it's to cumbersome to develop and maintain since the sites probably have different branding and probably using different document types and eventually you'll end up messing something up and client A is impacted by the messing up you did on client B's site etc. - This scenario could be the same if you chose to run more sites from the same client in a single Umbraco installation - But I think that it would be more acceptable from a client perspective than to find out you're sharing the same instance with another client - And there is no reason to have more clients in the same instance when Umbraco is free to use and you can setup a new installation within minutes.
I think that you should instead figure out, which components could be re-used from project to project. Usually I setup a base project where I create the basic stuff that I know I'm going to need from project to project like a document type for the Homepage and a document type for the Textpage. I also create a master template, under which I create the Hompage and Textpage templates. I also create templates for RSS and GoogleXmlSitemap at the same level as the "Master template". Then I usually add some basic tabs and properties for the document types like "SEO" fields etc and tweak some configuration files and setup my frontend basics at a general level. Everything that can be reusable from project to project. I then keep the base in a DVCS like GIT or Mercurial so it's easy to clone the base whenever I startup a new project to give me a head start, this means I can also add some more reusable content from a new project to my base if I find out that I'm going to be using this component almost everytime in future projects.
I suppose you could also make a repository of components, which can be copy/pasted and mapped within each new project to cut down the time of development within a project. There are many options and it's up to you to figure out what path seems sensible and right to you, your team and the workflow you're a part of.
Question 2
Since the release of Umbraco 4.10 it's has been possible to switch from using Webforms to using MVC. With the release of Umbraco 7 MVC is used as the default templating system but it can be changed to be using webforms instead in the /config/UmbracoSettings.config file - However I think it might be a good idea to invest some time to get up and running with MVC since webforms seem to be getting less love from Microsoft these days and MVC seems to be the future.
Therefore you can probably benefit from reading through a bunch of these links
Some of the posts above are up to 2 years old so some of the methods mentioned could have changed or be outdated but it's about getting the concept I think :)
You started your post with writing that you have been seeing the videos - If you have access to umbraco.tv then you can learn much more about Umbraco and MVC there as well.
a few newbie questions!
Hi there
I've just download umbraco 7, been watching the videos. Seems great. I have my first website setup and a few templates working.
But before I go further, there are a few things i'm not sure about from a best practice point of view...
1. I manage multiple websites - so should i have one umbraco install or many? Previously i've had one cloud server with all the sites on it. If I go for many, is there a big performance hit on the server? Would most people tend up keep umbraco up to date or are they happy to have older versions running. Keeping many installs up-to-date might become a pain!
2. I understand the datatypes etc ok, but lots of my websites have small apps within them. For example, one of them adds new email signups into mailchimp, another has the ability for fans to upload comments to a fanwall etc. I can write the code in vb.net, but where would the code live? Previously it would have been in code behind files, but i'm not sure as the best way to go.
Thanks for your help!
Peter
Hi Peter and welcome to our :)
Happy to hear that you have gotten a good first impression -I think you're going to have a lot of fun :)
Question 1 In regards to your first question I will say that it depends on your scenarios. Is it client based websites or is it your own pet projects? If it's your own pet project I'd say you can easily just use the same instance. Also if it's the same client who has more than 1 website then I don't see any issues with running multiple sites on the same Umbraco installation. And especially if the client has a website, which should be in multiple languages then it's also ideal to keep each site in the same instance.
However if you're thinking about using the same Umbraco instance for different clients I'd say that it's a no go since it's to cumbersome to develop and maintain since the sites probably have different branding and probably using different document types and eventually you'll end up messing something up and client A is impacted by the messing up you did on client B's site etc. - This scenario could be the same if you chose to run more sites from the same client in a single Umbraco installation - But I think that it would be more acceptable from a client perspective than to find out you're sharing the same instance with another client - And there is no reason to have more clients in the same instance when Umbraco is free to use and you can setup a new installation within minutes.
I think that you should instead figure out, which components could be re-used from project to project. Usually I setup a base project where I create the basic stuff that I know I'm going to need from project to project like a document type for the Homepage and a document type for the Textpage. I also create a master template, under which I create the Hompage and Textpage templates. I also create templates for RSS and GoogleXmlSitemap at the same level as the "Master template". Then I usually add some basic tabs and properties for the document types like "SEO" fields etc and tweak some configuration files and setup my frontend basics at a general level. Everything that can be reusable from project to project. I then keep the base in a DVCS like GIT or Mercurial so it's easy to clone the base whenever I startup a new project to give me a head start, this means I can also add some more reusable content from a new project to my base if I find out that I'm going to be using this component almost everytime in future projects.
I suppose you could also make a repository of components, which can be copy/pasted and mapped within each new project to cut down the time of development within a project. There are many options and it's up to you to figure out what path seems sensible and right to you, your team and the workflow you're a part of.
Question 2 Since the release of Umbraco 4.10 it's has been possible to switch from using Webforms to using MVC. With the release of Umbraco 7 MVC is used as the default templating system but it can be changed to be using webforms instead in the /config/UmbracoSettings.config file - However I think it might be a good idea to invest some time to get up and running with MVC since webforms seem to be getting less love from Microsoft these days and MVC seems to be the future.
Therefore you can probably benefit from reading through a bunch of these links
http://carlosmartinezt.com/2014/06/umbraco-7-and-mvc-practical-examples/
http://our.umbraco.org/documentation/Reference/Templating/Mvc/
http://umbraco.com/follow-us/blog-archive/2013/7/14/moving-from-webforms-to-mvc
http://umbraco.com/follow-us/blog-archive/2012/10/30/getting-started-with-mvc-in-umbraco-410.aspx
Some of the posts above are up to 2 years old so some of the methods mentioned could have changed or be outdated but it's about getting the concept I think :)
With MVC in Umbraco a new term called "Surface controllers" has seen the light of day and you can read more about this in the documentation here http://our.umbraco.org/documentation/Reference/Mvc/surface-controllers
You started your post with writing that you have been seeing the videos - If you have access to umbraco.tv then you can learn much more about Umbraco and MVC there as well.
I hope this post helps! :)
/Jan
Thanks so much Jan - that is super useful. I'll have to learn MVC!
Thanks again - have a great Christmas
Hi Peter
Glad that you find it useful :)
And please don't hesitate to ask further questions in here if they should arise.
Happy christmas to you too.
Cheers, Jan
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